A motor vehicle is mounted with a large number of actuators formed by a motor, a relay, a solenoid, and the like as electric equipment, and a control system for decentralized controlling the electric equipment independently by means of data communication has already been developed. In this system, a wire harness as shown in FIG. 17 is used. This wire harness 10 is constructed by installing a plurality of connectors 14 on a combination wire 12, in which a plurality of electric insulated wires are collected, at desired intervals in the lengthwise direction, and is called a so-called bus wiring wire harness. Each of the connectors 14 in this wire harness 10 is inserted in and connected to a connector 18 (equipment-side connector) on the electric equipment 16 side mounted at portions of a vehicle.
The connector 14 on the wire harness 10 side incorporates a circuit board that distinguishes a signal (address) to the electric equipment to which the connector 14 is connected from signals transmitting on the combination wire 12 to carry out the control of the electric equipment (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-172072). The connector of this type is also called a smart connector.
In the conventional circuit board-incorporating connector, a female terminal in which a male terminal of the equipment-side connector is inserted is connected to a circuit board by soldering, and a solderless terminal to which an electric wire is connected is also connected to the circuit board by soldering.
In recent years, the incorporating of a communication control IC in place of the circuit board has been studied. In this case, however, since the lead of the communication control IC is connected by soldering to the female terminal in which the male terminal of the equipment-side connector is inserted, the inserting/drawing force of the male terminal is unfavorably applied to the lead of the IC.
Also, in the conventional circuit board-incorporating connector, after the circuit board has been incorporated in a connector housing, soldering between the female terminal and the circuit board and soldering between the solderless terminal and the circuit board are performed (namely, the circuit board is incorporated at an early stage of a connector assembling process). Therefore, if a trouble is found during the assembly of connector, there is high possibility that the circuit board becomes wasteful. Also, if a trouble is found after the assembly of connector or after the assembly of wire harness, it is difficult to recover the circuit board. Since the communication control IC is more expensive than the circuit board, if a trouble is found after the communication control IC has been incorporated in the housing and the communication control IC becomes wasteful, the yield of assembling process is decreased, which results in an increase in cost.